Methods and systems for presenting information about multiple media assets

ABSTRACT

Methods and systems are disclosed herein for a media guidance application that presents information about a multiple media assets simultaneously by modifying graphical properties of a progress bar associated with each media asset. For example, based on one or more events in the respective media assets, the media guidance application may modify the dimensions of the progress bars to include textual descriptions, may modify a color, brightness, transparency, etc. of the progress bars, and/or may modify an animation of the progress bars or a graphic associated with the progress bars.

BACKGROUND

In conventional systems, users have access to a plethora of mediacontent through numerous media systems. Furthermore, while accessingthat content a progress bar may indicate to a user at what point in theruntime of the media asset that user is currently situated. For example,the progress bar may appear as an on-screen overlay in the form of astraight line on which a graphic progresses along the length of the lineas the user consumes the media asset. Despite the prevalence of progressbars in numerous media systems as well as the amount of on-screen realestate used for the progress bar, the information provided by a progressbar is limited.

SUMMARY

Accordingly, methods and systems are disclosed herein for a mediaguidance application that presents information about a media asset bymodifying graphical properties of a progress bar associated with themedia asset. For example, in addition to alerting the user to the user'sprogress in a media asset, the media guidance application may modifygraphical properties of the progress bar to alert the user to events(e.g., circumstances, occurrences, and/or subject matter) in the mediaassets. For example, based on one or more events in the media asset, themedia guidance application may modify the dimensions of the progress barto include textual descriptions, may modify a color, brightness,transparency, etc., of the progress bar, and/or may modify an animationof the progress bar or a graphic associated with the progress bar.

In some aspects, the media guidance application may generate for display(e.g., via control circuitry) a progress bar for a media asset. Forexample, the media guidance application may overlay a progress bar on amedia asset that is already generated for display.

The media guidance application may receive an indicium of an event inthe media asset. For example, the media guidance application may receivedata (e.g., either from a remote database or an object recognitioncomponent accessible by the media guidance application) that indicatesand/or describes a particular event in the media asset. For example,data received from a social media network may indicate that a particularportion of a media asset includes an important or popular moment in themedia asset. The media guidance application may use this data to modifythe progress bar to indicate when this important or popular moment willoccur.

The media guidance application may determine (e.g., via controlcircuitry) a point on the progress bar corresponding to the event. Forexample, the media guidance application may determine that a user iscurrently halfway through a media asset and may determine a point of theprogress bar that corresponds to the halfway point in the media asset.

The media guidance application may modify (e.g., via control circuitry)a dimension (e.g., a size or a shape) of the progress bar at the pointto accommodate a description of the event. For example, the mediaguidance application may expand the height of the progress bar such thattext describing the event (e.g., as determined by cross-referencing thepoint with a database listing descriptions of events at various pointsin the media asset) can appear in the progress bar and be read by auser. For example, the media guidance application may determine anamount of space required to display the description and select a newdimension for the progress bar based on the amount of space required todisplay the description.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may determine a typefor the event. For example, different types of events may correspond todifferent graphical properties. The media guidance application may thencross-reference the type of event in a database listing graphicalproperties that corresponds to types of events to determine a graphicalproperty that corresponds to the type of event and modify the progressbar to include the graphical property (e.g., a particular color,brightness, animation, etc.) at the event. For example, in response todetermining that the event corresponds to a content of a particularparental control rating, the media guidance application may determinewhat graphical property is used for such events and modify the progressbar accordingly.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may modify theprogress point only when the user's progress in the media assetapproaches the point on the progress bar corresponding to the event. Forexample, the media guidance application may determine a user's progressin the media asset and then determine whether or not the user's progresscorresponds to the point. If so, the media guidance application maymodify the dimensions of the progress bar. If not, the media guidanceapplication may not modify the dimensions of the progress bar.

In some aspects, the media guidance application may generate forsimultaneous display a first listing for a first media asset and asecond listing for a second media asset. For example, the media guidanceapplication may present a list of available media assets. The mediaguidance application may also determine a user's progress in the firstmedia asset and the user's progress in the second media asset. Forexample, for each media asset in a list, the media guidance applicationmay determine how much of the media asset has been consumed by the user.

The media guidance application may then determine a first graphicalproperty based on a first event in the first media asset correspondingto the user's progress in the first media asset and a second graphicalproperty based on a second event in the second media asset correspondingto the user's progress in the second media asset. For example, the mediaguidance application may cross-reference the first event with a databaselisting graphical properties that correspond to different events todetermine the first graphical property.

The media guidance application may then generate for simultaneousdisplay a first progress bar with the first graphical property for thefirst media asset and a second progress bar with the second graphicalproperty for the second media asset. For example, if the user's progressin the first media asset corresponds to the appearance of a newcharacter, the progress bar (or a graphic associated with the progressbar) may appear with a different color, a modified dimension, and/or atextual description of the event. Additionally or alternatively, if theuser's progress in the second media asset corresponds to a scary scene,the progress bar may flash.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may modify thegraphical properties of a progress bar based on other factors that maybe unrelated to a user's progress in the media asset. For example, themedia guidance application may modify a progress bar based on a deviceupon which a portion of a media asset was consumed, a number of times aportion of a media asset was consumed, a user that consumed a portion ofthe media asset, and/or whether or not the portion corresponds tocontent from a social network.

It should be noted that the systems and/or methods described above maybe applied to, or used in accordance with, other systems, methods and/orapparatuses.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The above and other objects and advantages of the disclosure will beapparent upon consideration of the following detailed description, takenin conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which like referencecharacters refer to like parts throughout, and in which:

FIG. 1 shows an illustrative example of a display screen generated by amedia guidance application in accordance with some embodiments of thedisclosure;

FIG. 2 shows another illustrative example of a display screen generatedby a media guidance application featuring a plurality of progress barswith graphical properties determined based on events in correspondingmedia assets in accordance with some embodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of an illustrative user equipment device inaccordance with some embodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of an illustrative media system in accordancewith some embodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 5 shows an illustrative example of a progress bar with graphicalproperties determined based on events in a corresponding media asset inaccordance with some embodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 6 is a flowchart of illustrative steps for modifying a dimension ofthe progress bar at the point to accommodate a description of the eventin accordance with some embodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 7 is a flowchart of illustrative steps for modifying graphicalproperties in a plurality of simultaneously displayed progress barsbased on events in corresponding media assets in accordance with someembodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 8 is a flowchart of illustrative steps for determining a graphicalproperty based on an event in accordance with some embodiments of thedisclosure; and

FIG. 9 is a flowchart of illustrative steps for presenting a progressbar with one or more graphical properties in accordance with someembodiments of the disclosure.

DETAILED DISCLOSURE OF THE DRAWINGS

Methods and systems are disclosed herein for a media guidanceapplication that presents information about a media asset to a user.Specifically, the media guidance application may modify one or morecharacteristics of a progress bar associated with a media asset toindicate the information to the user. For example, in addition toalerting the user to the amount of a media asset that has been (orremains to be) consumed by a user, the media guidance application maymodify graphical properties of the progress bar to alert the user toevents occurring in the media assets.

As referred to herein, a “media guidance application” or “guidanceapplication” is an application that allows a user, through an interface,to navigate to and access media content. Media guidance applications maytake various forms depending on the content for which they provideguidance. One typical type of media guidance application is aninteractive television program guide. Interactive television programguides (sometimes referred to as electronic program guides) arewell-known guidance applications that, among other things, allow usersto navigate among and locate many types of content or media assets.Media guidance applications may generate graphical user interfacescreens that enable a user to navigate among, locate and select content.

The media guidance application and/or any instructions for performingany of the embodiments discussed herein may be encoded on computerreadable media. Computer readable media includes any media capable ofstoring data. The computer readable media may be transitory, including,but not limited to, propagating electrical or electromagnetic signals,or may be non-transitory including, but not limited to, volatile andnon-volatile computer memory or storage devices such as a hard disk,floppy disk, USB drive, DVD, CD, media cards, register memory, processorcaches, Random Access Memory (“RAM”), etc.

The media guidance application may modify graphical properties of aprogress bar. As referred to herein, a “progress bar” is any graphicthat indicates a user's progress through a media asset. For example, aprogress bar may appear as a timeline or other substantially lineargraphic that indicates a beginning, end, or other position associatedwith a user's progress. In another example, a progress bar may include agraphic that indicates a percentage of the media asset that has beenconsumed by the user.

The progress bar may be associated with one or more graphicalproperties, which may be modified by the media guidance application. Asreferred to herein, a “graphical property” is any characteristic thataffects the appearance of a progress bar. For example, a graphicalproperty may include the dimensions (e.g., size and shape) of a progressbar. In another example, a graphical property may include a color,brightness, transparency level, animation, and/or other visual attributeof the progress bar. In some embodiments, the media guidance applicationmay also include other audio, video, or textual content in or near theprogress bar. For example, the media guidance application may presentadditional media content such as social media content (e.g., statusupdates, recommendations, etc., from a social network), music, audioalerts, and/or textual content associated with one or more events in themedia asset.

As referred to herein, the terms “media asset” and “content” should beunderstood to mean an electronically consumable user asset, such astelevision programming, as well as pay-per-view programs, on-demandprograms (as in video-on-demand (VOD) systems), Internet content (e.g.,streaming content, downloadable content, Webcasts, etc.), video clips,audio, content information, pictures, rotating images, documents,playlists, websites, articles, books, electronic books, blogs,advertisements, chat sessions, social media, applications, games, and/orany other media or multimedia and/or combination of the same. Guidanceapplications also allow users to navigate among and locate content. Asreferred to herein, the term “multimedia” should be understood to meancontent that utilizes at least two different content forms describedabove, for example, text, audio, images, video, or interactivity contentforms. Content may be recorded, played, displayed or accessed by userequipment devices, but can also be part of a live performance.

As referred to herein, an “event” is any circumstance, occurrence,and/or subject matter in the media asset that is distinguishable fromother circumstances, occurrences, and/or subject matter. For example, anevent in a media asset may correspond to the appearance of a character,information associated with a particular plot line, content enjoyed(e.g., “liked”) by one or more users, etc. In some embodiments, an eventmay correspond to a portion of a media asset. As referred to herein, a“portion” of a media asset is any segment of the media asset (e.g., ascene, a frame, a chapter, etc.) that is distinguishable from anothersegment of the media asset.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may determine a typeof the event. As referred to herein, a “type” of an event refers to acategory of events. For example, types of events may include eventsliked by common characteristics or events for which the criteria used todetermine whether or not an event is occurring is similar. For example,a type of event may correspond to the occurrence of media content thatis not suitable for children. In such a case, the criteria for such anevent may be based on whether or not content presented violates one ormore parental control settings. In another example, a type of event maycorrespond to content received from a particular source (e.g., a socialmedia network). In yet another example, a type of event may correspondto the appearance of particular content (e.g., a particular character inthe media asset) or the availability of content associated with themedia asset (e.g., deleted scenes, cast and crew information, addedfeatures, etc.).

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may modify theprogress bar only when the user's progress in the media asset approachesthe point on the progress bar corresponding to the event. For example,the media guidance application may determine a user's progress in themedia asset and then determine whether or not the user's progresscorresponds to the point. If so, the media guidance application maymodify the dimensions of the progress bar. If not, the media guidanceapplication may not modify the dimensions of the progress bar.Alternatively or additionally, the media guidance application may modifythe progress bar at particular points (e.g., the beginning or end of themedia asset or a scene in the media asset) or in response to a userinput (e.g., requesting the progress bar or to view events in the mediaasset).

For example, the media guidance application may only modify thegraphical properties of a progress bar before or after a fast-accessplayback operation. As referred to herein, the phrase “fast-accessplayback operation” should be understood to mean any media guidanceapplication operation that pertains to playing back a non-linear mediaasset faster than normal playback speed or in a different order than themedia asset is designed to be played, such as a fast-forward, rewind,skip, chapter selection, segment selection, skip segment, jump segment,next segment, previous segment, skip advertisement or commercial, nextchapter, previous chapter or any other operation that does not play backthe media asset at normal playback speed. The fast-access playbackoperation may be any playback operation that is not “play,” where theplay operation plays back the media asset at normal playback speed.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may modify thegraphical properties of a progress bar based on other factors that maybe unrelated to a user's progress in the media asset. For example, themedia guidance application may modify a progress bar based on a deviceupon which a portion of a media asset was consumed, a number of times aportion of a media asset was consumed, a user that consumed a portion ofthe media asset, and/or whether or not the portion corresponds tocontent from a social network.

As referred to herein, the phrase “user equipment device,” “userequipment,” “user device,” “electronic device,” “electronic equipment,”“media equipment device,” or “media device” should be understood to meanany device for accessing the content described above, such as atelevision, a Smart TV, a set-top box, an integrated receiver decoder(IRD) for handling satellite television, a digital storage device, adigital media receiver (DMR), a digital media adapter (DMA), a streamingmedia device, a DVD player, a DVD recorder, a connected DVD, a localmedia server, a BLU-RAY player, a BLU-RAY recorder, a personal computer(PC), a laptop computer, a tablet computer, a WebTV box, a personalcomputer television (PC/TV), a PC media server, a PC media center, ahand-held computer, a stationary telephone, a personal digital assistant(PDA), a mobile telephone, a portable video player, a portable musicplayer, a portable gaming machine, a smart phone, or any othertelevision equipment, computing equipment, or wireless device, and/orcombination of the same.

In some embodiments, the user equipment device may have a front facingscreen and a rear facing screen, multiple front screens, or multipleangled screens. In some embodiments, the user equipment device may havea front facing camera and/or a rear facing camera. On these userequipment devices, users may be able to navigate among and locate thesame content available through a television. Consequently, mediaguidance may be available on these devices, as well. The guidanceprovided may be for content available only through a television, forcontent available only through one or more of other types of userequipment devices, or for content available both through a televisionand one or more of the other types of user equipment devices. The mediaguidance applications may be provided as on-line applications (i.e.,provided on a web-site), or as stand-alone applications or clients onuser equipment devices. Various devices and platforms that may implementmedia guidance applications are described in more detail below.

One of the functions of the media guidance application is to providemedia guidance data to users. As referred to herein, the phrase “mediaguidance data” or “guidance data” should be understood to mean any datarelated to content or data used in operating the guidance application.For example, the guidance data may include program information, guidanceapplication settings, user preferences, user profile information, medialistings, media-related information (e.g., broadcast times, broadcastchannels, titles, descriptions, ratings information (e.g., parentalcontrol ratings, critic's ratings, etc.), genre or category information,actor information, logo data for broadcasters' or providers' logos,etc.), media format (e.g., standard definition, high definition, 3D,etc.), advertisement information (e.g., text, images, media clips,etc.), on-demand information, blogs, websites, and any other type ofguidance data that is helpful for a user to navigate among and locatedesired content selections.

FIGS. 1-2 show illustrative display screens that may be used to providemedia guidance data. The display screens shown in FIGS. 1-2 may beimplemented on any suitable user equipment device or platform. While thedisplays of FIGS. 1-2 are illustrated as full screen displays, they mayalso be fully or partially overlaid over content being displayed. A usermay indicate a desire to access content information by selecting aselectable option provided in a display screen (e.g., a menu option, alistings option, an icon, a hyperlink, etc.) or pressing a dedicatedbutton (e.g., a GUIDE button) on a remote control or other user inputinterface or device. In response to the user's indication, the mediaguidance application may provide a display screen with media guidancedata organized in one of several ways, such as by time and channel in agrid, by time, by channel, by source, by content type, by category(e.g., movies, sports, news, children, or other categories ofprogramming), or other predefined, user-defined, or other organizationcriteria.

FIG. 1 shows illustrative grid of a program listings display 100arranged by time and channel that also enables access to different typesof content in a single display. Display 100 may include grid 102 with:(1) a column of channel/content type identifiers 104, where eachchannel/content type identifier (which is a cell in the column)identifies a different channel or content type available; and (2) a rowof time identifiers 106, where each time identifier (which is a cell inthe row) identifies a time block of programming. Grid 102 also includescells of program listings, such as program listing 108, where eachlisting provides the title of the program provided on the listing'sassociated channel and time. With a user input device, a user can selectprogram listings by moving highlight region 110. Information relating tothe program listing selected by highlight region 110 may be provided inprogram information region 112. Region 112 may include, for example, theprogram title, the program description, the time the program is provided(if applicable), the channel the program is on (if applicable), theprogram's rating, and other desired information.

In addition to providing access to linear programming (e.g., contentthat is scheduled to be transmitted to a plurality of user equipmentdevices at a predetermined time and is provided according to aschedule), the media guidance application also provides access tonon-linear programming (e.g., content accessible to a user equipmentdevice at any time and is not provided according to a schedule).Non-linear programming may include content from different contentsources including on-demand content (e.g., VOD), Internet content (e.g.,streaming media, downloadable media, etc.), locally stored content(e.g., content stored on any user equipment device described above orother storage device), or other time-independent content. On-demandcontent may include movies or any other content provided by a particularcontent provider (e.g., HBO On Demand providing “The Sopranos” and “CurbYour Enthusiasm”). HBO ON DEMAND is a service mark owned by Time WarnerCompany L.P. et al. and THE SOPRANOS and CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM aretrademarks owned by the Home Box Office, Inc. Internet content mayinclude web events, such as a chat session or Webcast, or contentavailable on-demand as streaming content or downloadable content throughan Internet web site or other Internet access (e.g. FTP).

Grid 102 may provide media guidance data for non-linear programmingincluding on-demand listing 114, recorded content listing 116, andInternet content listing 118. A display combining media guidance datafor content from different types of content sources is sometimesreferred to as a “mixed-media” display. Various permutations of thetypes of media guidance data that may be displayed that are differentthan display 100 may be based on user selection or guidance applicationdefinition (e.g., a display of only recorded and broadcast listings,only on-demand and broadcast listings, etc.). As illustrated, listings114, 116, and 118 are shown as spanning the entire time block displayedin grid 102 to indicate that selection of these listings may provideaccess to a display dedicated to on-demand listings, recorded listings,or Internet listings, respectively. In some embodiments, listings forthese content types may be included directly in grid 102. Additionalmedia guidance data may be displayed in response to the user selectingone of the navigational icons 120. (Pressing an arrow key on a userinput device may affect the display in a similar manner as selectingnavigational icons 120.)

Display 100 may also include video region 122, advertisement 124, andoptions region 126. Video region 122 may allow the user to view and/orpreview programs that are currently available, will be available, orwere available to the user. The content of video region 122 maycorrespond to, or be independent from, one of the listings displayed ingrid 102. Grid displays including a video region are sometimes referredto as picture-in-guide (PIG) displays. PIG displays and theirfunctionalities are described in greater detail in Satterfield et al.U.S. Pat. No. 6,564,378, issued May 13, 2003 and Yuen et al. U.S. Pat.No. 6,239,794, issued May 29, 2001, which are hereby incorporated byreference herein in their entireties. PIG displays may be included inother media guidance application display screens of the embodimentsdescribed herein.

Advertisement 124 may provide an advertisement for content that,depending on a viewer's access rights (e.g., for subscriptionprogramming), is currently available for viewing, will be available forviewing in the future, or may never become available for viewing, andmay correspond to or be unrelated to one or more of the content listingsin grid 102. Advertisement 124 may also be for products or servicesrelated or unrelated to the content displayed in grid 102. Advertisement124 may be selectable and provide further information about content,provide information about a product or a service, enable purchasing ofcontent, a product, or a service, provide content relating to theadvertisement, etc. Advertisement 124 may be targeted based on a user'sprofile/preferences, monitored user activity, the type of displayprovided, or on other suitable targeted advertisement bases.

While advertisement 124 is shown as rectangular or banner shaped,advertisements may be provided in any suitable size, shape, and locationin a guidance application display. For example, advertisement 124 may beprovided as a rectangular shape that is horizontally adjacent to grid102. This is sometimes referred to as a panel advertisement. Inaddition, advertisements may be overlaid over content or a guidanceapplication display or embedded within a display. Advertisements mayalso include text, images, rotating images, video clips, or other typesof content described above. Advertisements may be stored in a userequipment device having a guidance application, in a database connectedto the user equipment, in a remote location (including streaming mediaservers), or on other storage means, or a combination of theselocations. Providing advertisements in a media guidance application isdiscussed in greater detail in, for example, Knudson et al., U.S. PatentApplication Publication No. 2003/0110499, filed Jan. 17, 2003; Ward, IIIet al. U.S. Pat. No. 6,756,997, issued Jun. 29, 2004; and Schein et al.U.S. Pat. No. 6,388,714, issued May 14, 2002, which are herebyincorporated by reference herein in their entireties. It will beappreciated that advertisements may be included in other media guidanceapplication display screens of the embodiments described herein.

Options region 126 may allow the user to access different types ofcontent, media guidance application displays, and/or media guidanceapplication features. Options region 126 may be part of display 100 (andother display screens described herein), or may be invoked by a user byselecting an on-screen option or pressing a dedicated or assignablebutton on a user input device. The selectable options within optionsregion 126 may concern features related to program listings in grid 102or may include options available from a main menu display. Featuresrelated to program listings may include searching for other air times orways of receiving a program, recording a program, enabling seriesrecording of a program, setting program and/or channel as a favorite,purchasing a program, or other features. Options available from a mainmenu display may include search options, VOD options, parental controloptions, Internet options, cloud-based options, device synchronizationoptions, second screen device options, options to access various typesof media guidance data displays, options to subscribe to a premiumservice, options to edit a user's profile, options to access a browseoverlay, or other options.

The media guidance application may be personalized based on a user'spreferences. A personalized media guidance application allows a user tocustomize displays and features to create a personalized “experience”with the media guidance application. This personalized experience may becreated by allowing a user to input these customizations and/or by themedia guidance application monitoring user activity to determine varioususer preferences. Users may access their personalized guidanceapplication by logging in or otherwise identifying themselves to theguidance application. Customization of the media guidance applicationmay be made in accordance with a user profile. The customizations mayinclude varying presentation schemes (e.g., color scheme of displays,font size of text, etc.), aspects of content listings displayed (e.g.,only HDTV or only 3D programming, user-specified broadcast channelsbased on favorite channel selections, re-ordering the display ofchannels, recommended content, etc.), desired recording features (e.g.,recording or series recordings for particular users, recording quality,etc.), parental control settings, customized presentation of Internetcontent (e.g., presentation of social media content, e-mail,electronically delivered articles, etc.) and other desiredcustomizations.

The media guidance application may allow a user to provide user profileinformation or may automatically compile user profile information. Themedia guidance application may, for example, monitor the content theuser accesses and/or other interactions the user may have with theguidance application. Additionally, the media guidance application mayobtain all or part of other user profiles that are related to aparticular user (e.g., from other web sites on the Internet the useraccesses, such as www.allrovi.com, from other media guidanceapplications the user accesses, from other interactive applications theuser accesses, from another user equipment device of the user, etc.),and/or obtain information about the user from other sources that themedia guidance application may access. As a result, a user can beprovided with a unified guidance application experience across theuser's different user equipment devices. This type of user experience isdescribed in greater detail below in connection with FIG. 4. Additionalpersonalized media guidance application features are described ingreater detail in Ellis et al., U.S. Patent Application Publication No.2005/0251827, filed Jul. 11, 2005, Boyer et al., U.S. Pat. No.7,165,098, issued Jan. 16, 2007, and Ellis et al., U.S. PatentApplication Publication No. 2002/0174430, filed Feb. 21, 2002, which arehereby incorporated by reference herein in their entireties.

Another display arrangement for providing media guidance is shown inFIG. 2. Video mosaic display 200 includes selectable options 202 forcontent information organized based on content type, genre, and/or otherorganization criteria. In display 200, television listings option 204 isselected, thus providing listings 206, 208, 210, and 212 as broadcastprogram listings. In display 200 the listings may provide graphicalimages including cover art, still images from the content, video clippreviews, live video from the content, or other types of content thatindicate to a user the content being described by the media guidancedata in the listing. Each of the graphical listings may also beaccompanied by text to provide further information about the contentassociated with the listing. For example, listing 208 may include morethan one portion, including media portion 214 and text portion 216.Media portion 214 and/or text portion 216 may be selectable to viewcontent in full-screen or to view information related to the contentdisplayed in media portion 214 (e.g., to view listings for the channelthat the video is displayed on).

The listings in display 200 are of different sizes (i.e., listing 206 islarger than listings 208, 210, and 212), but if desired, all thelistings may be the same size. Listings may be of different sizes orgraphically accentuated to indicate degrees of interest to the user orto emphasize certain content, as desired by the content provider orbased on user preferences. Various systems and methods for graphicallyaccentuating content listings are discussed in, for example, Yates, U.S.Patent Application Publication No. 2010/0153885, filed Dec. 29, 2005,which is hereby incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.

Display 200 also includes a plurality of progress bars (e.g., progressbars 218 and 220) corresponding to media listings (e.g., listing 208 andlisting 206, respectively). Furthermore, the plurality of progress barseach have varying graphical properties. For example, the media guidanceapplication presenting display 200 has selected the graphical propertiesfor each of the progress bars based on the content of the media assetthat corresponds to the user's progress in that media asset. Forexample, progress bar 218 indicates that a user is not yet halfwaythrough a media asset associated with listing 208. Likewise, the mediaguidance application has selected a graphical property for progress bar218 that corresponds to content that would be currently consumed by theuser if the user selected listing 208.

Progress bar 220 includes multiple graphical properties. For example,progress bar 220 includes graphical property 222 and graphical property224. For example, a portion of the media asset corresponding tographical property 222 may correspond to a first event and a portion ofthe media asset corresponding to graphical property 224 may correspondto a second event. Alternatively, the media guidance application mayselect graphical property 224 based on a user's progress in the mediaasset, but also highlight a portion associated with graphical property222 based on another factor.

For example, the media guidance application may modify the graphicalproperties of progress bar 220 based on other factors that may beunrelated to a user's progress in the media asset. For example, themedia guidance application may modify progress bar 220 based on a deviceupon which a portion of a media asset (e.g., the portion correspondingto graphical property 222) was consumed, a number of times the portionof a media asset was consumed, a user that consumed the portion of themedia asset, and/or whether or not the portion corresponds to contentfrom a social network.

As used herein, a “social network,” refers to a platform thatfacilitates networking and/or social relations among people who, forexample, share interests, activities, backgrounds, and/or real-lifeconnections. In some cases, social networks may facilitate communicationbetween multiple user devices (e.g., computers, televisions,smartphones, tablets, etc.) associated with different users byexchanging content from one device to another via a social media server.As used herein, a “social media server” refers to a computer server thatfacilitates a social network. For example, a social media serverowned/operated/used by a social media provider may make content (e.g.,status updates, microblog posts, images, graphic messages, etc.)associated with a first user accessible to a second user that is withinthe same social network as the first user.

Users may access content and the media guidance application (and itsdisplay screens described above and below) from one or more of theiruser equipment devices. FIG. 3 shows a generalized embodiment ofillustrative user equipment device 300. More specific implementations ofuser equipment devices are discussed below in connection with FIG. 4.User equipment device 300 may receive content and data via input/output(hereinafter “I/O”) path 302. I/O path 302 may provide content (e.g.,broadcast programming, on-demand programming, Internet content, contentavailable over a local area network (LAN) or wide area network (WAN),and/or other content) and data to control circuitry 304, which includesprocessing circuitry 306 and storage 308. Control circuitry 304 may beused to send and receive commands, requests, and other suitable datausing I/O path 302. I/O path 302 may connect control circuitry 304 (andspecifically processing circuitry 306) to one or more communicationspaths (described below). I/O functions may be provided by one or more ofthese communications paths, but are shown as a single path in FIG. 3 toavoid overcomplicating the drawing.

Control circuitry 304 may be based on any suitable processing circuitrysuch as processing circuitry 306. As referred to herein, processingcircuitry should be understood to mean circuitry based on one or moremicroprocessors, microcontrollers, digital signal processors,programmable logic devices, field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs),application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs), etc., and may includea multi-core processor (e.g., dual-core, quad-core, hexa-core, or anysuitable number of cores) or supercomputer. In some embodiments,processing circuitry may be distributed across multiple separateprocessors or processing units, for example, multiple of the same typeof processing units (e.g., two Intel Core i7 processors) or multipledifferent processors (e.g., an Intel Core i5 processor and an Intel Corei7 processor). In some embodiments, control circuitry 304 executesinstructions for a media guidance application stored in memory (i.e.,storage 308). Specifically, control circuitry 304 may be instructed bythe media guidance application to perform the functions discussed aboveand below. For example, the media guidance application may provideinstructions to control circuitry 304 to generate the media guidancedisplays. In some implementations, any action performed by controlcircuitry 304 may be based on instructions received from the mediaguidance application.

In client-server based embodiments, control circuitry 304 may includecommunications circuitry suitable for communicating with a guidanceapplication server or other networks or servers. The instructions forcarrying out the above mentioned functionality may be stored on theguidance application server. Communications circuitry may include acable modem, an integrated services digital network (ISDN) modem, adigital subscriber line (DSL) modem, a telephone modem, Ethernet card,or a wireless modem for communications with other equipment, or anyother suitable communications circuitry. Such communications may involvethe Internet or any other suitable communications networks or paths(which is described in more detail in connection with FIG. 4). Inaddition, communications circuitry may include circuitry that enablespeer-to-peer communication of user equipment devices, or communicationof user equipment devices in locations remote from each other (describedin more detail below).

Memory may be an electronic storage device provided as storage 308 thatis part of control circuitry 304. As referred to herein, the phrase“electronic storage device” or “storage device” should be understood tomean any device for storing electronic data, computer software, orfirmware, such as random-access memory, read-only memory, hard drives,optical drives, digital video disc (DVD) recorders, compact disc (CD)recorders, BLU-RAY disc (BD) recorders, BLU-RAY 3D disc recorders,digital video recorders (DVR, sometimes called a personal videorecorder, or PVR), solid state devices, quantum storage devices, gamingconsoles, gaming media, or any other suitable fixed or removable storagedevices, and/or any combination of the same. Storage 308 may be used tostore various types of content described herein as well as mediaguidance data described above. Nonvolatile memory may also be used(e.g., to launch a boot-up routine and other instructions). Cloud-basedstorage, described in relation to FIG. 4, may be used to supplementstorage 308 or instead of storage 308.

Control circuitry 304 may include video generating circuitry and tuningcircuitry, such as one or more analog tuners, one or more MPEG-2decoders or other digital decoding circuitry, high-definition tuners, orany other suitable tuning or video circuits or combinations of suchcircuits. Encoding circuitry (e.g., for converting over-the-air, analog,or digital signals to MPEG signals for storage) may also be provided.Control circuitry 304 may also include scaler circuitry for upconvertingand downconverting content into the preferred output format of the userequipment 300. Circuitry 304 may also include digital-to-analogconverter circuitry and analog-to-digital converter circuitry forconverting between digital and analog signals. The tuning and encodingcircuitry may be used by the user equipment device to receive and todisplay, to play, or to record content. The tuning and encodingcircuitry may also be used to receive guidance data. The circuitrydescribed herein, including for example, the tuning, video generating,encoding, decoding, encrypting, decrypting, scaler, and analog/digitalcircuitry, may be implemented using software running on one or moregeneral purpose or specialized processors. Multiple tuners may beprovided to handle simultaneous tuning functions (e.g., watch and recordfunctions, picture-in-picture (PIP) functions, multiple-tuner recording,etc.). If storage 308 is provided as a separate device from userequipment 300, the tuning and encoding circuitry (including multipletuners) may be associated with storage 308.

A user may send instructions to control circuitry 304 using user inputinterface 310. User input interface 310 may be any suitable userinterface, such as a remote control, mouse, trackball, keypad, keyboard,touch screen, touchpad, stylus input, joystick, voice recognitioninterface, or other user input interfaces. Display 312 may be providedas a stand-alone device or integrated with other elements of userequipment device 300. For example, display 312 may be a touchscreen ortouch-sensitive display. In such circumstances, user input interface 312may be integrated with or combined with display 312. Display 312 may beone or more of a monitor, a television, a liquid crystal display (LCD)for a mobile device, amorphous silicon display, low temperature polysilicon display, electronic ink display, electrophoretic display, activematrix display, electro-wetting display, electrofluidic display, cathoderay tube display, light-emitting diode display, electroluminescentdisplay, plasma display panel, high-performance addressing display,thin-film transistor display, organic light-emitting diode display,surface-conduction electron-emitter display (SED), laser television,carbon nanotubes, quantum dot display, interferometric modulatordisplay, or any other suitable equipment for displaying visual images.In some embodiments, display 312 may be HDTV-capable. In someembodiments, display 312 may be a 3D display, and the interactive mediaguidance application and any suitable content may be displayed in 3D. Avideo card or graphics card may generate the output to the display 312.The video card may offer various functions such as accelerated renderingof 3D scenes and 2D graphics, MPEG-2/MPEG-4 decoding, TV output, or theability to connect multiple monitors. The video card may be anyprocessing circuitry described above in relation to control circuitry304. The video card may be integrated with the control circuitry 304.Speakers 314 may be provided as integrated with other elements of userequipment device 300 or may be stand-alone units. The audio component ofvideos and other content displayed on display 312 may be played throughspeakers 314. In some embodiments, the audio may be distributed to areceiver (not shown), which processes and outputs the audio via speakers314.

User equipment device also includes detection module 316. In someembodiments, detection module 316 may be a stand-alone applicationwholly implemented. Alternatively, detection module 316 may beincorporated into user equipment device 300. The media guidanceapplication may use detection module 316 to detect events in mediaassets. For example, the media guidance application may use a contentrecognition module or algorithm to generate data describing the context,content, and/or any other data necessary for detecting and identifyingevents in a media asset. For example, the content recognition module mayuse object recognition techniques such as edge detection, patternrecognition, including, but not limited to, self-learning systems (e.g.,neural networks), optical character recognition, on-line characterrecognition (including but not limited to dynamic character recognition,real-time character recognition, intelligent character recognition),and/or any other suitable technique or method to determine objects inthe media asset.

For example, the media guidance application may receive data in the formof a video. The video may include a series of frames. For each frame ofthe video, the media guidance application may use a content recognitionmodule or algorithm to determine the objects (e.g., people, places,things, etc.) in each of the frames or series of frames, which may beused to detect or identify an event. For example, based on the detectionof a multitude of explosions in the frames of a portion of the mediaasset, the media guidance application may identify an event (e.g., a carcrash, fight scene, etc.) associated with that portion of the mediaasset.

In some embodiments, the content recognition module or algorithm mayalso include speech recognition techniques, including, but not limitedto, Hidden Markov Models, dynamic time warping, and/or neural networks(as described above) to translate spoken words into text and/orprocessing audio data. The content recognition module may also combinemultiple techniques to detect or identify an event.

In addition, the media guidance application may use multiple types ofoptical character recognition and/or fuzzy logic, for example, whenprocessing keyword(s) retrieved from data (e.g., textual data,translated audio data, user inputs, etc.) describing the media asset (orwhen cross-referencing various types of data in databases). For example,in some embodiments, the media guidance application may detect oridentify an event based on data (e.g., metadata) associated with a mediaasset. The data may be received from a remote source (e.g., mediaguidance data source 418 (FIG. 4)). In such cases, the data may identifyand describe each event in a media asset. If the particular datareceived is textual data, using fuzzy logic, the media guidanceapplication (e.g., via a content recognition module or algorithmincorporated into, or accessible by, the media guidance application) maydetermine two fields and/or values to be identical even though thesubstance of the data or value (e.g., two different spellings) is notidentical.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may analyze data ofa data structure or media asset frame for particular values or textusing optical character recognition methods described above. Forexample, the media guidance application may process subtitles of themedia asset to find particular characters or other event indicators thatoccurred in a media asset in order to detect and identify events.

The guidance application may be implemented using any suitablearchitecture. For example, it may be a stand-alone applicationwholly-implemented on user equipment device 300. In such an approach,instructions of the application are stored locally (e.g., in storage308), and data for use by the application is downloaded on a periodicbasis (e.g., from an out-of-band feed, from an Internet resource, orusing another suitable approach). Control circuitry 304 may retrieveinstructions of the application from storage 308 and process theinstructions to generate any of the displays discussed herein. Based onthe processed instructions, control circuitry 304 may determine whataction to perform when input is received from input interface 310. Forexample, movement of a cursor on a display up/down may be indicated bythe processed instructions when input interface 310 indicates that anup/down button was selected.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application is a client-serverbased application. Data for use by a thick or thin client implemented onuser equipment device 300 is retrieved on-demand by issuing requests toa server remote to the user equipment device 300. In one example of aclient-server based guidance application, control circuitry 304 runs aweb browser that interprets web pages provided by a remote server. Forexample, the remote server may store the instructions for theapplication in a storage device. The remote server may process thestored instructions using circuitry (e.g., control circuitry 304) andgenerate the displays discussed above and below. The client device mayreceive the displays generated by the remote server and may display thecontent of the displays locally on equipment device 300. This way, theprocessing of the instructions is performed remotely by the server whilethe resulting displays are provided locally on equipment device 300.Equipment device 300 may receive inputs from the user via inputinterface 310 and transmit those inputs to the remote server forprocessing and generating the corresponding displays. For example,equipment device 300 may transmit a communication to the remote serverindicating that an up/down button was selected via input interface 310.The remote server may process instructions in accordance with that inputand generate a display of the application corresponding to the input(e.g., a display that moves a cursor up/down). The generated display isthen transmitted to equipment device 300 for presentation to the user.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application is downloaded andinterpreted or otherwise run by an interpreter or virtual machine (runby control circuitry 304). In some embodiments, the guidance applicationmay be encoded in the ETV Binary Interchange Format (EBIF), received bycontrol circuitry 304 as part of a suitable feed, and interpreted by auser agent running on control circuitry 304. For example, the guidanceapplication may be an EBIF application. In some embodiments, theguidance application may be defined by a series of JAVA-based files thatare received and run by a local virtual machine or other suitablemiddleware executed by control circuitry 304. In some of suchembodiments (e.g., those employing MPEG-2 or other digital mediaencoding schemes), the guidance application may be, for example, encodedand transmitted in an MPEG-2 object carousel with the MPEG audio andvideo packets of a program.

User equipment device 300 of FIG. 3 can be implemented in system 400 ofFIG. 4 as user television equipment 402, user computer equipment 404,wireless user communications device 406, or any other type of userequipment suitable for accessing content, such as a non-portable gamingmachine. For simplicity, these devices may be referred to hereincollectively as user equipment or user equipment devices, and may besubstantially similar to user equipment devices described above. Userequipment devices, on which a media guidance application may beimplemented, may function as a standalone device or may be part of anetwork of devices. Various network configurations of devices may beimplemented and are discussed in more detail below.

A user equipment device utilizing at least some of the system featuresdescribed above in connection with FIG. 3 may not be classified solelyas user television equipment 402, user computer equipment 404, or awireless user communications device 406. For example, user televisionequipment 402 may, like some user computer equipment 404, beInternet-enabled allowing for access to Internet content, while usercomputer equipment 404 may, like some television equipment 402, includea tuner allowing for access to television programming. The mediaguidance application may have the same layout on various different typesof user equipment or may be tailored to the display capabilities of theuser equipment. For example, on user computer equipment 404, theguidance application may be provided as a web site accessed by a webbrowser. In another example, the guidance application may be scaled downfor wireless user communications devices 406.

In system 400, there is typically more than one of each type of userequipment device but only one of each is shown in FIG. 4 to avoidovercomplicating the drawing. In addition, each user may utilize morethan one type of user equipment device and also more than one of eachtype of user equipment device.

In some embodiments, a user equipment device (e.g., user televisionequipment 402, user computer equipment 404, wireless user communicationsdevice 406) may be referred to as a “second screen device.” For example,a second screen device may supplement content presented on a first userequipment device. The content presented on the second screen device maybe any suitable content that supplements the content presented on thefirst device. In some embodiments, the second screen device provides aninterface for adjusting settings and display preferences of the firstdevice. In some embodiments, the second screen device is configured forinteracting with other second screen devices or for interacting with asocial network. The second screen device can be located in the same roomas the first device, a different room from the first device but in thesame house or building, or in a different building from the firstdevice.

The user may also set various settings to maintain consistent mediaguidance application settings across in-home devices and remote devices.Settings include those described herein, as well as channel and programfavorites, programming preferences that the guidance applicationutilizes to make programming recommendations, display preferences, andother desirable guidance settings. For example, if a user sets a channelas a favorite on, for example, the web site www.allrovi.com on theirpersonal computer at their office, the same channel would appear as afavorite on the user's in-home devices (e.g., user television equipmentand user computer equipment) as well as the user's mobile devices, ifdesired. Therefore, changes made on one user equipment device can changethe guidance experience on another user equipment device, regardless ofwhether they are the same or a different type of user equipment device.In addition, the changes made may be based on settings input by a user,as well as user activity monitored by the guidance application.

The user equipment devices may be coupled to communications network 414.Namely, user television equipment 402, user computer equipment 404, andwireless user communications device 406 are coupled to communicationsnetwork 414 via communications paths 408, 410, and 412, respectively.Communications network 414 may be one or more networks including theInternet, a mobile phone network, mobile voice or data network (e.g., a4G or LTE network), cable network, public switched telephone network, orother types of communications network or combinations of communicationsnetworks. Paths 408, 410, and 412 may separately or together include oneor more communications paths, such as, a satellite path, a fiber-opticpath, a cable path, a path that supports Internet communications (e.g.,IPTV), free-space connections (e.g., for broadcast or other wirelesssignals), or any other suitable wired or wireless communications path orcombination of such paths. Path 412 is drawn with dotted lines toindicate that in the exemplary embodiment shown in FIG. 4 it is awireless path and paths 408 and 410 are drawn as solid lines to indicatethey are wired paths (although these paths may be wireless paths, ifdesired). Communications with the user equipment devices may be providedby one or more of these communications paths, but are shown as a singlepath in FIG. 4 to avoid overcomplicating the drawing.

Although communications paths are not drawn between user equipmentdevices, these devices may communicate directly with each other viacommunication paths, such as those described above in connection withpaths 408, 410, and 412, as well as other short-range point-to-pointcommunication paths, such as USB cables, IEEE 1394 cables, wirelesspaths (e.g., Bluetooth, infrared, IEEE 802-11x, etc.), or othershort-range communication via wired or wireless paths. BLUETOOTH is acertification mark owned by Bluetooth SIG, INC. The user equipmentdevices may also communicate with each other directly through anindirect path via communications network 414.

System 400 includes content source 416 and media guidance data source418 coupled to communications network 414 via communication paths 420and 422, respectively. Paths 420 and 422 may include any of thecommunication paths described above in connection with paths 408, 410,and 412.

Communications with the content source 416 and media guidance datasource 418 may be exchanged over one or more communications paths, butare shown as a single path in FIG. 4 to avoid overcomplicating thedrawing. In addition, there may be more than one of each of contentsource 416 and media guidance data source 418, but only one of each isshown in FIG. 4 to avoid overcomplicating the drawing. (The differenttypes of each of these sources are discussed below.) If desired, contentsource 416 and media guidance data source 418 may be integrated as onesource device. Although communications between sources 416 and 418 withuser equipment devices 402, 404, and 406 are shown as throughcommunications network 414, in some embodiments, sources 416 and 418 maycommunicate directly with user equipment devices 402, 404, and 406 viacommunication paths (not shown) such as those described above inconnection with paths 408, 410, and 412.

Content source 416 may include one or more types of content distributionequipment including a television distribution facility, cable systemheadend, satellite distribution facility, programming sources (e.g.,television broadcasters, such as NBC, ABC, HBO, etc.), intermediatedistribution facilities and/or servers, Internet providers, on-demandmedia servers, and other content providers. NBC is a trademark owned bythe National Broadcasting Company, Inc., ABC is a trademark owned by theAmerican Broadcasting Company, Inc., and HBO is a trademark owned by theHome Box Office, Inc. Content source 416 may be the originator ofcontent (e.g., a television broadcaster, a Webcast provider, etc.) ormay not be the originator of content (e.g., an on-demand contentprovider, an Internet provider of content of broadcast programs fordownloading, etc.). Content source 416 may include cable sources,satellite providers, on-demand providers, Internet providers,over-the-top content providers, or other providers of content. Contentsource 416 may also include a remote media server used to storedifferent types of content (including video content selected by a user),in a location remote from any of the user equipment devices. Systems andmethods for remote storage of content, and providing remotely storedcontent to user equipment are discussed in greater detail in connectionwith Ellis et al., U.S. Pat. No. 7,761,892, issued Jul. 20, 2010, whichis hereby incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.

Media guidance data source 418 may provide media guidance data, such asthe media guidance data described above. Media guidance data may beprovided to the user equipment devices using any suitable approach. Insome embodiments, the guidance application may be a stand-aloneinteractive television program guide that receives program guide datavia a data feed (e.g., a continuous feed or trickle feed). Programschedule data and other guidance data may be provided to the userequipment on a television channel sideband, using an in-band digitalsignal, using an out-of-band digital signal, or by any other suitabledata transmission technique. Program schedule data and other mediaguidance data may be provided to user equipment on multiple analog ordigital television channels.

In some embodiments, guidance data from media guidance data source 418may be provided to users' equipment using a client-server approach. Forexample, a user equipment device may pull media guidance data from aserver, or a server may push media guidance data to a user equipmentdevice. In some embodiments, a guidance application client residing onthe user's equipment may initiate sessions with source 418 to obtainguidance data when needed, e.g., when the guidance data is out of dateor when the user equipment device receives a request from the user toreceive data. Media guidance may be provided to the user equipment withany suitable frequency (e.g., continuously, daily, a user-specifiedperiod of time, a system-specified period of time, in response to arequest from user equipment, etc.). Media guidance data source 418 mayprovide user equipment devices 402, 404, and 406 the media guidanceapplication itself or software updates for the media guidanceapplication.

In some embodiments, the media guidance data may include viewer data.For example, the viewer data may include current and/or historical useractivity information (e.g., what content the user typically watches,what times of day the user watches content, whether the user interactswith a social network, at what times the user interacts with a socialnetwork to post information, what types of content the user typicallywatches (e.g., pay TV or free TV), mood, brain activity information,etc.). The media guidance data may also include subscription data. Forexample, the subscription data may identify to which sources or servicesa given user subscribes and/or to which sources or services the givenuser has previously subscribed but later terminated access (e.g.,whether the user subscribes to premium channels, whether the user hasadded a premium level of services, whether the user has increasedInternet speed). In some embodiments, the viewer data and/or thesubscription data may identify patterns of a given user for a period ofmore than one year. The media guidance data may include a model (e.g., asurvivor model) used for generating a score that indicates a likelihooda given user will terminate access to a service/source. For example, themedia guidance application may process the viewer data with thesubscription data using the model to generate a value or score thatindicates a likelihood of whether the given user will terminate accessto a particular service or source. In particular, a higher score mayindicate a higher level of confidence that the user will terminateaccess to a particular service or source. Based on the score, the mediaguidance application may generate promotions and advertisements thatentice the user to keep the particular service or source indicated bythe score as one to which the user will likely terminate access.

Media guidance applications may be, for example, stand-aloneapplications implemented on user equipment devices. For example, themedia guidance application may be implemented as software or a set ofexecutable instructions which may be stored in storage 308, and executedby control circuitry 304 of a user equipment device 300. In someembodiments, media guidance applications may be client-serverapplications where only a client application resides on the userequipment device, and server application resides on a remote server. Forexample, media guidance applications may be implemented partially as aclient application on control circuitry 304 of user equipment device 300and partially on a remote server as a server application (e.g., mediaguidance data source 418) running on control circuitry of the remoteserver. When executed by control circuitry of the remote server (such asmedia guidance data source 418), the media guidance application mayinstruct the control circuitry to generate the guidance applicationdisplays and transmit the generated displays to the user equipmentdevices. The server application may instruct the control circuitry ofthe media guidance data source 418 to transmit data for storage on theuser equipment. The client application may instruct control circuitry ofthe receiving user equipment to generate the guidance applicationdisplays.

Content and/or media guidance data delivered to user equipment devices402, 404, and 406 may be over-the-top (OTT) content. OTT contentdelivery allows Internet-enabled user devices, including any userequipment device described above, to receive content that is transferredover the Internet, including any content described above, in addition tocontent received over cable or satellite connections. OTT content isdelivered via an Internet connection provided by an Internet serviceprovider (ISP), but a third party distributes the content. The ISP maynot be responsible for the viewing abilities, copyrights, orredistribution of the content, and may only transfer IP packets providedby the OTT content provider. Examples of OTT content providers includeYOUTUBE, NETFLIX, and HULU, which provide audio and video via IPpackets. Youtube is a trademark owned by Google Inc., Netflix is atrademark owned by Netflix Inc., and Hulu is a trademark owned by Hulu,LLC. OTT content providers may additionally or alternatively providemedia guidance data described above. In addition to content and/or mediaguidance data, providers of OTT content can distribute media guidanceapplications (e.g., web-based applications or cloud-based applications),or the content can be displayed by media guidance applications stored onthe user equipment device.

Media guidance system 400 is intended to illustrate a number ofapproaches, or network configurations, by which user equipment devicesand sources of content and guidance data may communicate with each otherfor the purpose of accessing content and providing media guidance. Theembodiments described herein may be applied in any one or a subset ofthese approaches, or in a system employing other approaches fordelivering content and providing media guidance. The following fourapproaches provide specific illustrations of the generalized example ofFIG. 4.

In one approach, user equipment devices may communicate with each otherwithin a home network. User equipment devices can communicate with eachother directly via short-range point-to-point communication schemesdescribed above, via indirect paths through a hub or other similardevice provided on a home network, or via communications network 414.Each of the multiple individuals in a single home may operate differentuser equipment devices on the home network. As a result, it may bedesirable for various media guidance information or settings to becommunicated between the different user equipment devices. For example,it may be desirable for users to maintain consistent media guidanceapplication settings on different user equipment devices within a homenetwork, as described in greater detail in Ellis et al., U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 11/179,410, filed Jul. 11, 2005. Different types ofuser equipment devices in a home network may also communicate with eachother to transmit content. For example, a user may transmit content fromuser computer equipment to a portable video player or portable musicplayer.

In a second approach, users may have multiple types of user equipment bywhich they access content and obtain media guidance. For example, someusers may have home networks that are accessed by in-home and mobiledevices. Users may control in-home devices via a media guidanceapplication implemented on a remote device. For example, users mayaccess an online media guidance application on a website via a personalcomputer at their office, or a mobile device such as a PDA orweb-enabled mobile telephone. The user may set various settings (e.g.,recordings, reminders, or other settings) on the online guidanceapplication to control the user's in-home equipment. The online guidemay control the user's equipment directly, or by communicating with amedia guidance application on the user's in-home equipment. Varioussystems and methods for user equipment devices communicating, where theuser equipment devices are in locations remote from each other, isdiscussed in, for example, Ellis et al., U.S. Pat. No. 8,046,801, issuedOct. 25, 2011, which is hereby incorporated by reference herein in itsentirety.

In a third approach, users of user equipment devices inside and outsidea home can use their media guidance application to communicate directlywith content source 416 to access content. Specifically, within a home,users of user television equipment 402 and user computer equipment 404may access the media guidance application to navigate among and locatedesirable content. Users may also access the media guidance applicationoutside of the home using wireless user communications devices 406 tonavigate among and locate desirable content.

In a fourth approach, user equipment devices may operate in a cloudcomputing environment to access cloud services. In a cloud computingenvironment, various types of computing services for content sharing,storage or distribution (e.g., video sharing sites or social networkingsites) are provided by a collection of network-accessible computing andstorage resources, referred to as “the cloud.” For example, the cloudcan include a collection of server computing devices, which may belocated centrally or at distributed locations, that provide cloud-basedservices to various types of users and devices connected via a networksuch as the Internet via communications network 414. These cloudresources may include one or more content sources 416 and one or moremedia guidance data sources 418. In addition or in the alternative, theremote computing sites may include other user equipment devices, such asuser television equipment 402, user computer equipment 404, and wirelessuser communications device 406. For example, the other user equipmentdevices may provide access to a stored copy of a video or a streamedvideo. In such embodiments, user equipment devices may operate in apeer-to-peer manner without communicating with a central server.

The cloud provides access to services, such as content storage, contentsharing, or social networking services, among other examples, as well asaccess to any content described above, for user equipment devices.Services can be provided in the cloud through cloud computing serviceproviders, or through other providers of online services. For example,the cloud-based services can include a content storage service, acontent sharing site, a social networking site, or other services viawhich user-sourced content is distributed for viewing by others onconnected devices. These cloud-based services may allow a user equipmentdevice to store content to the cloud and to receive content from thecloud rather than storing content locally and accessing locally-storedcontent.

A user may use various content capture devices, such as camcorders,digital cameras with video mode, audio recorders, mobile phones, andhandheld computing devices, to record content. The user can uploadcontent to a content storage service on the cloud either directly, forexample, from user computer equipment 404 or wireless usercommunications device 406 having content capture feature. Alternatively,the user can first transfer the content to a user equipment device, suchas user computer equipment 404. The user equipment device storing thecontent uploads the content to the cloud using a data transmissionservice on communications network 414. In some embodiments, the userequipment device itself is a cloud resource, and other user equipmentdevices can access the content directly from the user equipment deviceon which the user stored the content.

Cloud resources may be accessed by a user equipment device using, forexample, a web browser, a media guidance application, a desktopapplication, a mobile application, and/or any combination of accessapplications of the same. The user equipment device may be a cloudclient that relies on cloud computing for application delivery, or theuser equipment device may have some functionality without access tocloud resources. For example, some applications running on the userequipment device may be cloud applications, i.e., applications deliveredas a service over the Internet, while other applications may be storedand run on the user equipment device. In some embodiments, a user devicemay receive content from multiple cloud resources simultaneously. Forexample, a user device can stream audio from one cloud resource whiledownloading content from a second cloud resource. Or a user device candownload content from multiple cloud resources for more efficientdownloading. In some embodiments, user equipment devices can use cloudresources for processing operations such as the processing operationsperformed by processing circuitry described in relation to FIG. 3.

FIG. 5 shows an illustrative example of a progress bar with graphicalproperties determined based on events in a corresponding media asset.For example, FIG. 5 shows display 500. In some embodiments, display 500may appear on display 312 (FIG. 3) and/or user equipment device 402,404, and/or 406 (FIG. 4)). For example, a media guidance applicationimplemented on user equipment device 300 (FIG. 3)) may generate fordisplay 500.

Display 500 includes progress bar 502, which is currently overlaid on apresentation of a media asset in display 500. For example, progress bar502 may indicate the progress of a user in consuming the media asset indisplay 500. Progress bar 502 also includes graphic 504, which mayindicate the user's progress in the runtime (e.g., represented by thelength of progress bar 502) in the media asset presented on display 500.It should be noted that in some embodiments, the media guidanceapplication may alter the graphical properties of graphic 504 inaddition to, or as an alternative to, altering the graphical propertiesof progress bar 502. Accordingly, it should be noted that any embodimentused to modify the graphical properties of a progress bar may also beapplied to a graphic or other content near or associated with theprogress bar.

The media guidance application has modified the graphical properties ofprogress bar 502 in multiple ways. For example, the media guidanceapplication has modified progress bar 502 to allow for textualdescription 506 to appear within the confines of progress bar 502. Forexample, the media guidance application may have detected an event(e.g., corresponding to an outburst of a character in the media asset)and in response generated textual description 506.

Additionally, progress bar 502 includes depression 508. For example,depression 508 may indicate a drop in ratings, social mediainteractions, and/or other measures that indicate a portion of the mediaasset is unimportant or unpopular. Moreover, the shape (e.g., the depthof the depression) may correspond to the amount at which a portion ofthe media asset is deemed unimportant or unpopular by the media guidanceapplication based on the received data.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart of illustrative steps for modifying a dimension ofthe progress bar at the point to accommodate a description of the event.It should be noted that process 600 or any step thereof could beperformed on, or provided by, any of the devices shown in FIGS. 3-4. Forexample, process 600 may be executed by control circuitry 304 (FIG. 3)as instructed by a media guidance application implemented on userequipment 402, 404, and/or 406 (FIG. 4) in order to modify a dimensionof the progress bar at the point to accommodate a description of theevent. In addition, one or more steps of process 600 may be incorporatedinto or combined with one or more steps of any other process orembodiment.

In step 602, the media guidance application generates for display (e.g.,via control circuitry 304 (FIG. 3)) a progress bar for a media asset.For example, the media guidance application may overlay a progress bar(e.g., progress bar 502 (FIG. 5)) on a media asset that is alreadygenerated for display (e.g., on display 500 (FIG. 5)).

At step 604, the media guidance application receives an indicium of anevent in the media asset. For example, the media guidance applicationmay receive data that indicates and/or describes a particular event inthe media asset. For example, the data may be received from a remotesource (e.g., media guidance data source 418 (FIG. 4)), and local source(e.g., storage circuitry 308 (FIG. 3)), and/or from a component (e.g.,detection module 316 (FIG. 3)). For example, the data may indicate thata particular portion of a media asset includes an event. In addition,the data may describe the event.

At step 606, the media guidance application may determine (e.g., viacontrol circuitry 304 (FIG. 3)) a point on the progress barcorresponding to the event. For example, the media guidance applicationmay determine that a user is currently halfway through a media asset andmay determine a point of the progress bar that corresponds to thehalfway point in the media asset. In another example, the data receivedby the media guidance application may indicate that the three-minute andfifty-second mark in the play length of a media asset corresponds to theintroduction of an important plot point. In response, the media guidanceapplication may identify (e.g., via control circuitry 304 (FIG. 3)) thepoint of the progress bar that corresponds to the three-minute andfifty-second mark in the play length of the media asset.

At 608, the media guidance application modifies (e.g., via controlcircuitry 304 (FIG. 3)) a dimension (e.g., a size or a shape) of theprogress bar at the point to accommodate a description of the event(e.g., textual description 506 (FIG. 5)). For example, the mediaguidance application may (e.g., via control circuitry 304 (FIG. 3))expand the height of the progress bar such that text describing theevent can appear in the progress bar and read by a user.

For example, the media guidance application may cross-reference (e.g.,via control circuitry 304 (FIG. 3)) the point with a database (e.g.,located at storage 308 (FIG. 3) and/or any location accessible viacommunications network 414 (FIG. 4)) listing descriptions of events atvarious points in the media asset) to determine a description of theevent at the point. The media guidance application may then determine(e.g., via control circuitry 304 (FIG. 3)) an amount of space requiredto display the description and select (e.g., via control circuitry 304(FIG. 3)) a new dimension for the progress bar based on the amount ofspace required to display the description. For example, the mediaguidance application may determine the number of characters, spaces,font, font size, etc. associated with the textual description by parsingthe textual description. Additionally or alternatively, the mediaguidance application may receive information (e.g., from the database)that indicates the number of characters, spaces, font, font size, etc.associated with the textual description.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may determine (e.g.,via control circuitry 304 (FIG. 3)) a type of the event. For example,different types of events may correspond to different graphicalproperties. For example, the media guidance application may presentevent of the same type in a similar manner such that may be learned bythe user and/or are intuitive for the user to understand. For example,events associated with textual descriptions may appear within theprogress bar (e.g., as shown with respect to textual description 506(FIG. 5)). In contrast, events associated with ratings or popularity mayappear as modifications to the shape or length of the progress bar(e.g., as shown with respect to depression 508 (FIG. 5)).

For example, after determining a type of an event, the media guidanceapplication may cross-reference (e.g., via control circuitry 304 (FIG.3)) the type of event in a database (e.g., located at storage 308 (FIG.3) and/or any location accessible via communications network 414 (FIG.4)) listing graphical properties that correspond to types of events todetermine a graphical property that corresponds to the type of event.For example, the media guidance application may indicate events thatviolate a parental control setting by red, flashing icons, whereas themedia guidance application may indicate events that indicate a socialnetwork friend of the user enjoyed a portion of the media asset bysolid, green icons.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may modify theprogress point only when the user's progress in the media assetapproaches the point on the progress bar corresponding to the event. Forexample, the media guidance application may determine (e.g., via controlcircuitry 304 (FIG. 3)) a user's progress in the media asset and thendetermine (e.g., via control circuitry 304 (FIG. 3)) whether or not theuser's progress corresponds to the point. If so, the media guidanceapplication may modify (e.g., via control circuitry 304 (FIG. 3)) thedimensions of the progress bar (e.g., progress bar 502 (FIG. 5)). Ifnot, the media guidance application may not modify the dimensions of theprogress bar.

It is contemplated that the steps or descriptions of FIG. 6 may be usedwith any other embodiment of this disclosure. In addition, the steps anddescriptions described in relation to FIG. 6 may be done in alternativeorders or in parallel to further the purposes of this disclosure. Forexample, each of these steps may be performed in any order or inparallel or substantially simultaneously to reduce lag or increase thespeed of the system or method. Furthermore, it should be noted that anyof the devices or equipment discussed in relation to FIGS. 3-4 could beused to perform one or more of the steps in FIG. 6.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart of illustrative steps for modifying graphicalproperties in a plurality of simultaneously displayed progress barsbased on events in corresponding media assets. It should be noted thatprocess 700 or any step thereof could be performed on, or provided by,any of the devices shown in FIGS. 3-4. For example, process 700 may beexecuted by control circuitry 304 (FIG. 3) as instructed by a mediaguidance application implemented on user equipment 402, 404, and/or 406(FIG. 4) in order to modify graphical properties in a plurality ofsimultaneously displayed progress bars based on events in correspondingmedia assets. In addition, one or more steps of process 700 may beincorporated into or combined with one or more steps of any otherprocess or embodiment.

At step 702, the media guidance application generates (e.g., via controlcircuitry 304 (FIG. 3)) for simultaneous display (e.g., on display 312(FIG. 3)) a first listing (e.g., listing 206 (FIG. 2)) for a first mediaasset and a second listing (e.g., listing 208 (FIG. 2)) for a secondmedia asset. For example, the media guidance application may present alist of available media assets (e.g., as shown in FIGS. 1-2).

At step 704, the media guidance application determines (e.g., viacontrol circuitry 304 (FIG. 3)) a user's progress in the first mediaasset and the user's progress in the second media asset. For example,for each media asset in a list, the media guidance application maydetermine (e.g., via control circuitry 304 (FIG. 3)) how much of themedia asset has been consumed by the user, how much of the media assetremains to be consumed by the user, the total length of a media asset,and/or any events occurring in the media asset.

At step 706, the media guidance application determines (e.g., viacontrol circuitry 304 (FIG. 3)) a first graphical property (e.g.,graphical property 222 (FIG. 2)) based on a first event in the firstmedia asset corresponding to the user's progress in the first mediaasset and a second graphical property (e.g., graphical property 224(FIG. 2)) based on a second event in the second media assetcorresponding to the user's progress in the second media asset. Forexample, the media guidance application may cross-reference (e.g., viacontrol circuitry 304 (FIG. 3)) the first event with a database (e.g.,located at storage 308 (FIG. 3) and/or any location accessible viacommunications network 414 (FIG. 4)) listing graphical properties thatcorrespond to different events to determine the first graphicalproperty.

At step 708, the media guidance application generates (e.g., via controlcircuitry 304 (FIG. 3)) for simultaneous display (e.g., on display 312(FIG. 3)) a first progress bar (e.g., progress bar 218 (FIG. 2)) withthe first graphical property for the first media asset and a secondprogress bar (e.g., progress bar 220 (FIG. 2)) with the second graphicalproperty for the second media asset. For example, if the user's progressin the first media asset corresponds to the appearance of a newcharacter, the progress bar (or a graphic associated with the progressbar) may appear with a different color, a modified dimension, and/or atextual description of the event (e.g., as discussed in relation to FIG.5).

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may modify thegraphical properties of a progress bar based on other factors that maybe unrelated to a user's progress in the media asset (e.g., as discussedin relation to FIG. 9). For example, the media guidance application maymodify a progress bar based on a device upon which a portion of a mediaasset was consumed, a number of times a portion of a media asset wasconsumed, a user that consumed a portion of the media asset, and/orwhether or not the portion corresponds to content from a social network.

It is contemplated that the steps or descriptions of FIG. 7 may be usedwith any other embodiment of this disclosure. In addition, the steps anddescriptions described in relation to FIG. 7 may be done in alternativeorders or in parallel to further the purposes of this disclosure. Forexample, each of these steps may be performed in any order or inparallel or substantially simultaneously to reduce lag or increase thespeed of the system or method. Furthermore, it should be noted that anyof the devices or equipment discussed in relation to FIGS. 3-4 could beused to perform one or more of the steps in FIG. 7.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart of illustrative steps for determining a graphicalproperty based on an event. It should be noted that process 800 or anystep thereof could be performed on, or provided by, any of the devicesshown in FIGS. 3-4. For example, process 800 may be executed by controlcircuitry 304 (FIG. 3) as instructed by a media guidance applicationimplemented on user equipment 402, 404, and/or 406 (FIG. 4) in order todetermine a graphical property based on an event. In addition, one ormore steps of process 800 may be incorporated into or combined with oneor more steps of any other process or embodiment.

At step 802, the media guidance application determines (e.g., viacontrol circuitry 304 (FIG. 3)) a user's progress in a media asset. Forexample, the media guidance application may track the amount (e.g., interms of total time and/or number of frames) of a media asset consumedby a user. Additionally or alternatively, the media guidance applicationmay detect (e.g., via control circuitry 304 (FIG. 3)) a current progresspoint (e.g., a frame, time-mark, etc.) of the media asset and compare(e.g., via control circuitry 304 (FIG. 3)) the detected point to a totalplay length of the media asset.

At step 804, the media guidance application determines (e.g., viacontrol circuitry 304 (FIG. 3)) a portion of the media assetcorresponding to the user's progress. For example, after detecting(e.g., via control circuitry 304 (FIG. 3)) a current progress point(e.g., a frame, time-mark, etc.), the media guidance application maydetermine a portion of the media asset that includes the detected point.For example, the detected point may correspond to a time-mark (e.g., thethirty-minute mark in the media asset) that corresponds to a scene,which includes a time period (e.g., starting at the twenty-eight minutemark and ending at the thirty-third minute mark).

At step 806, the media guidance application cross-references (e.g., viacontrol circuitry 304 (FIG. 3)) a database (e.g., located at storage 308(FIG. 3) and/or at any location accessible via communications network414 (FIG. 4)) to determine an event corresponding to the portion. Forexample, the media guidance application may input the detected point(e.g., the thirty minute mark) into the database, and the database mayoutput one or more portions that correspond to the detected point. Forexample, a first portion may include a time period starting at thetwenty-eight minute mark and ending at the thirty-first minute mark. Asecond portion may include a time period starting at the twenty-firstminute mark and ending at the thirty-ninth minute mark, and a thirdportion may include a time period starting at the ten minute mark andending at the sixty minute mark.

At step 808, the media guidance application determines (e.g., viacontrol circuitry 304 (FIG. 3)) whether or not an event corresponds tothe portion). For example, the media guidance application maycross-reference the portion with a database (e.g., located at storage308 (FIG. 3) and/or any location accessible via communications network414 (FIG. 4)) listing events that correspond to various portions of themedia asset. If the media guidance application determines that no eventscorrespond to the portion, the media guidance application proceeds tostep 810 and increases the size of the portion. For example, if no eventcorresponds to a first portion that includes a time period starting atthe twenty-eight minute mark and ending at the thirty-first minute mark,the media guidance application may extend the portion to include a timeperiod starting at the twenty-fifth minute mark and ending at thethirty-fifth minute mark. Alternatively, the media guidance applicationmay select a different portion that is longer than the previouslyselected portion, but still includes the detected point.

If the media guidance application determines that an event correspond tothe portion, the media guidance application proceeds to step 814 anddetermines (e.g., via control circuitry 304 (FIG. 3)) whether or notmultiple events correspond to the portion. For example, the mediaguidance application may ensure that each portion (e.g., as associatedwith a graphical property) corresponds to only a single point). If themedia guidance application determines that the portion corresponds toonly a single event, the media guidance application proceeds to step 816and determines a graphical property based on the event (e.g., asdescribed in relation to step 706 (FIG. 7)).

If the media guidance application determines (e.g., via controlcircuitry 304 (FIG. 3)) that the portion corresponds to multiple events,the media guidance application proceeds to step 812 and decreases thesize of the portion. For example, if two events corresponds to a firstportion that includes a time period starting at the twenty-eight minutemark and ending at the thirty-first minute mark, the media guidanceapplication may restrict the portion to include a time period startingat the twenty-ninth minute mark and ending at the thirty minute mark.Alternatively, the media guidance application may select a differentportion that is shorter than the previously selected portion, but stillincludes the detected point.

It should be noted that in some embodiments, the media guidanceapplication determine that multiple events are associated with the sameportion and apply multiple graphical properties to a progress bar. Forexample, in addition to the media guidance application generating fordisplay a textual description (e.g., textual description 506 (FIG. 5))corresponding to one event, the media guidance application may alter thecolor of the progress bar based on another event.

It is contemplated that the steps or descriptions of FIG. 8 may be usedwith any other embodiment of this disclosure. In addition, the steps anddescriptions described in relation to FIG. 8 may be done in alternativeorders or in parallel to further the purposes of this disclosure. Forexample, each of these steps may be performed in any order or inparallel or substantially simultaneously to reduce lag or increase thespeed of the system or method. Furthermore, it should be noted that anyof the devices or equipment discussed in relation to FIGS. 3-4 could beused to perform one or more of the steps in FIG. 8.

FIG. 9 is a flowchart of illustrative steps for presenting a progressbar with one or more graphical properties. It should be noted thatprocess 900 or any step thereof could be performed on, or provided by,any of the devices shown in FIGS. 3-4. For example, process 900 may beexecuted by control circuitry 304 (FIG. 3) as instructed by a mediaguidance application implemented on user equipment 402, 404, and/or 406(FIG. 4) in order to present a progress bar with one or more graphicalproperties. In addition, one or more steps of process 900 may beincorporated into or combined with one or more steps of any otherprocess or embodiment.

At step 902, the media guidance application determines (e.g., viacontrol circuitry 304 (FIG. 3)) an event corresponding to a user'sprogress in the media asset. For example, the media guidance applicationmay cross-reference (e.g., via control circuitry 304 (FIG. 3)) adatabase (e.g., located at storage 308 (FIG. 3) and/or at any locationaccessible via communications network 414 (FIG. 4)) to determine anevent corresponding to the user's progress. For example, the mediaguidance application may input a progress point of the user (e.g., aframe number) into the database, and the database may output one or moreevents that correspond to the progress point.

At step 904, the media guidance application determines whether or notone or more graphical properties are associated with an event. Forexample, the media guidance application may cross-reference (e.g., viacontrol circuitry 304 (FIG. 3)) the event with a database (e.g., locatedat storage 308 (FIG. 3) and/or any location accessible viacommunications network 414 (FIG. 4)) listing graphical properties thatcorrespond to different events to determine one or more graphicalproperties that correspond to the event.

If the media guidance application determines that one or more graphicalproperties are associated with the event, the media guidance applicationproceeds to step 906 and stores the graphical properties. For example,the media guidance application may record (e.g., in storage 308 FIG. 3))any graphical properties that are associated with the event beforeproceeding to step 908. If the media guidance application determinesthat one or more graphical properties are not associated with the event,the media guidance application proceeds directly to step 908.

At step 908, the media guidance application determines whether or notone or more graphical properties that are not associated with the user'sprogress should be applied to a progress bar. For example, the mediaguidance application may modify (e.g., via control circuitry 304 (FIG.3)) the graphical properties of a progress bar (e.g., progress bar 220(FIG. 2)) based on other factors that may be unrelated to a user'sprogress in the media asset.

For example, the progress bar may feature a first color (e.g.,corresponding to a first device) for a first portion and a second color(e.g., corresponding to a second device) for a second portion, in whicheach color indicates on which device each portion of the media asset wasconsumed. For example, the media guidance application may select agraphical property to associated with the progress bar (or a portion ofthe progress bar) based on a device used to consume the media asset.

In another example, the progress bar (or a graphic associated with theprogress bar) may feature a first animation during a portion of themedia asset that has been watched before, and a different animation fora portion of the media asset that has not been watched before. Forexample, the media guidance application may select a graphical propertyto associated with the progress bar (or a portion of the progress bar)based on a number of times a portion of a media asset was consumed.

In another example, the progress bar (or a graphic associated with theprogress bar) may feature a first dimension during a portion of themedia asset that was consumed by a first user, and a different dimensionfor a portion of the media asset that was consumed by a different user.For example, the media guidance application may select a graphicalproperty to associated with the progress bar (or a portion of theprogress bar) based on a user that consumed a portion of the mediaasset.

In another example, the progress bar (or a graphic associated with theprogress bar) may feature a first textual description during a portionof the media asset that was “liked” by a social network associate of theuser, and a different textual description for a portion of the mediaasset that was not “liked” by a social network associate of the user.For example, the media guidance application may select a graphicalproperty to associated with the progress bar (or a portion of theprogress bar) based on whether or not the portion corresponds to contentfrom a social network.

If the media guidance application determines that one or more graphicalproperties that are not associated with the user's progress should beapplied to a progress bar, the media guidance application proceeds tostep 910 and stores the graphical properties. For example, the mediaguidance application may record (e.g., in storage 308 FIG. 3)) anygraphical properties that should be applied to the progress bar beforeproceeding to step 912. If the media guidance application determinesthat one or more graphical properties that are not associated with theuser's progress should not be applied to the progress bar, the mediaguidance application proceeds directly to step 912.

At step 912, the media guidance application generates (e.g., via controlcircuitry 304 (FIG. 3)) for display (e.g., on display 312 (FIG. 3)) aprogress bar (e.g., progress bar 502 (FIG. 5)) with one or more storedgraphical properties (e.g., graphical property 222 (FIG. 2) and/orgraphical property 224 (FIG. 2)). It should be noted that in someembodiments, the media guidance application may determine one or moregraphical properties that are not associated with the user's progressshould be applied to a progress bar without first determining whether ornot any graphical properties are associated with an event or the user'sprogress.

It is contemplated that the steps or descriptions of FIG. 9 may be usedwith any other embodiment of this disclosure. In addition, the steps anddescriptions described in relation to FIG. 9 may be done in alternativeorders or in parallel to further the purposes of this disclosure. Forexample, each of these steps may be performed in any order or inparallel or substantially simultaneously to reduce lag or increase thespeed of the system or method. Furthermore, it should be noted that anyof the devices or equipment discussed in relation to FIGS. 3-4 could beused to perform one or more of the steps in FIG. 9.

The above-described embodiments of the present disclosure are presentedfor purposes of illustration and not of limitation, and the presentdisclosure is limited only by the claims that follow. Furthermore, itshould be noted that the features and limitations described in any oneembodiment may be applied to any other embodiment herein, and flowchartsor examples relating to one embodiment may be combined with any otherembodiment in a suitable manner, done in different orders, or done inparallel. In addition, the systems and methods described herein may beperformed in real time. It should also be noted, the systems and/ormethods described above may be applied to, or used in accordance with,other systems and/or methods.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method for presenting information aboutprograms, the method comprising: generating for simultaneous display afirst listing for a first program and a second listing for a secondprogram; determining a user's progress in the first program and theuser's progress in the second program; detecting, with controlcircuitry, a first plot event in the first program, by: determining aportion of the first program corresponding to the user's progress in thefirst program; accessing a database containing a plurality of plotevents associated with portions of the first program; determining, basedon comparing the portion of the first program corresponding to theuser's progress with the plurality of plot events in the database,whether the portion corresponds to only a single plot event; in responseto determining that the portion does not correspond to only the singleplot event, adjusting a size of the portion of the first program; and inresponse to determining that the portion corresponds to only the singleplot event, determining the single plot event as the first plot event;determining, with the control circuitry, a first type associated withthe first plot event; selecting, with the control circuitry, a firstgraphical property from a plurality of graphical properties thatcorresponds to the first type; detecting, with the control circuitry, asecond plot event in the second program; determining, with the controlcircuitry, a second type associated with the second plot event, whereinthe second type is different from the first type; selecting, with thecontrol circuitry, a second graphical property from the plurality ofgraphical properties that corresponds to the second type; and generatingfor simultaneous display a first progress bar with the first graphicalproperty for the first program and a second progress bar with the secondgraphical property for the second program.
 2. The method of claim 1,wherein the graphical property includes a color, a brightness, or ananimation.
 3. The method of claim 1, wherein the first progress barindicates the user's progress in the first program.
 4. The method ofclaim 1, further comprising cross-referencing the first plot event witha database listing graphical properties that correspond to differentplot events to determine the first graphical property.
 5. The method ofclaim 1, further comprising generating for display the first listing andthe first progress bar in a first cell and the second listing and thesecond progress bar in a second cell.
 6. The method of claim 1, furthercomprising modifying a dimension of the first progress bar toaccommodate a description of the first plot event in the first program.7. The method of claim 1, further comprising modifying graphicalproperties of the first progress bar to indicate a portion of the user'sprogress in the first program that occurred on a first device.
 8. Themethod of claim 1, further comprising modifying graphical properties ofthe first progress bar to indicate a portion of the user's progress inthe first program that was consumed by another user.
 9. The method ofclaim 1, further comprising modifying graphical properties of the firstprogress bar to indicate a portion of the user's progress in the firstprogram that was consumed multiple times by the user.
 10. The method ofclaim 1, further comprising modifying graphical properties of the firstprogress bar to indicate a portion of the user's progress in the firstprogram that corresponds to content from a social network.
 11. A systemfor presenting information about programs, the system comprising:storage circuitry configured to store a first graphical property and asecond graphical property; and control circuitry configured to: generatefor simultaneous display a first listing for a first program and asecond listing for a second program; determine a user's progress in thefirst program and the user's progress in the second program; detect afirst plot event in the first program; determine a first type associatedwith the first plot event by: determining a portion of the first programcorresponding to the user's progress in the first program; accessing adatabase containing a plurality of plot events associated with portionsof the first program; determining, based on comparing the portion of thefirst program corresponding to the user's progress with the plurality ofplot events in the database, whether the portion corresponds to only asingle plot event; in response to determining that the portion does notcorrespond to only the single plot event, adjusting a size of theportion of the first program; and in response to determining that theportion corresponds to only the single plot event, determining thesingle plot event as the first plot event; select the first graphicalproperty from a plurality of graphical properties that corresponds tothe first type; detect a second plot event in the second program;determine a second type associated with the second plot event, whereinthe second type is different from the first type; select the secondgraphical property from the plurality of graphical properties thatcorresponds to the second type; and generate for simultaneous display afirst progress bar with the first graphical property for the firstprogram and a second progress bar with the second graphical property forthe second program.
 12. The system of claim 11, wherein the graphicalproperty includes a color, a brightness, or an animation.
 13. The systemof claim 11, wherein the first progress bar indicates the user'sprogress in the first program.
 14. The system of claim 11, wherein thecontrol circuitry is further configured to cross-reference the firstplot event with a database listing graphical properties that correspondto different plot events to determine the first graphical property. 15.The system of claim 11, wherein the control circuitry is furtherconfigured to generate for display the first listing and the firstprogress bar in a first cell and the second listing and the secondprogress bar in a second cell.
 16. The system of claim 11, wherein thecontrol circuitry is further configured to modify a dimension of thefirst progress bar to accommodate a description of the first plot eventin the first program.
 17. The system of claim 11, wherein the controlcircuitry is further configured to modify graphical properties of thefirst progress bar to indicate a portion of the user's progress in thefirst program that occurred on a first device.
 18. The system of claim11, wherein the control circuitry is further configured to modifygraphical properties of the first progress bar to indicate a portion ofthe user's progress in the first program that was consumed by anotheruser.
 19. The system of claim 11, wherein the control circuitry isfurther configured to modify graphical properties of the first progressbar to indicate a portion of the user's progress in the first programthat was consumed multiple times by the user.
 20. The system of claim11, wherein the control circuitry is further configured to modifygraphical properties of the first progress bar to indicate a portion ofthe user's progress in the first program that corresponds to contentfrom a social network.